Mundane
by Decembers-Coldest-Rain
Summary: Once the psychic connection is created, it is not so easily broken. A collection of small moments between Rey and Kylo Ren as they discover that even the greatest of enemies can share breakfast when they're forced to.
1. Merriment

Merriment

"But I really should be training!" Rey cried, stumbling along behind Fin and Poe as they pulled her through the door of a dusty saloon on the edge of some backwater planet. Loud, jovial music played throughout the room. The walls were cut from a natural outcrop of rock and the floors were tightly packed sand.

It reminded her of Jakku.

Bodies packed all around them. Loud voices chattered all around and disoriented the girl. From ahead, Fin's smiling face was visible. "You've been training non-stop for a month. We've all earned a break!"

Rey was hard-pressed to disagree. Her muscles ached and had swollen with new mass, her skin was covered with small cuts and burns. She followed her friends to a shoddy bar top towards the back of the room. The smell of alcohol was strong in the air, and dancing bodies undulated around them as Poe ordered three shots of some amber liquid. Fin and Rey saddled up next to him, each dutifully raising a glass.

"Leia Organa!" Called Poe.

"The resistance!" Fin offered.

Rey smiled. "The force!" ...and with that each downed their bittersweet drink and coughed and sniffed and straightened up.

Poe motioned to have the small glasses refilled immediately. Rey had begun to protest when the warm liquid in her stomach began to take effect and she felt her muscles relax. "Are we doing this?" Fin asked, grabbing the next drink with a large grin.

"Oh yeah," said Poe. The three took their shots eagerly and again the glasses were refilled.

Pop played happily overhead.

XXX

Kylo Ren, Ben Solo, sat alone in his quarters reading a heavy book. The room was cold, and quiet, and the turning of the heavy papyrus was the only sound except for the soft ever-present hum of the ventilation system. He felt a tingle on the back of his neck, but did not look up until he became aware of a soft upbeat sound in the air.

In the center of the room, with her back to him, was the last Jedi. Rey. It took Ren a long moment to understand what he was seeing. The girl was covered in dust and her arms waved fluidly around her body. Occasionally she stumbled from some unseen force. Her movements were almost awkward, but Ren recognized it as dancing. A glass appeared in her hand, having been handed to her, and Ren could smell the alcohol as if it were in his own grip.

She downed it, coughing and laughing. "Dance with me!" she called, pulling at unseen arms.

Ren watched without a sound. She was clearly unaware of his presence, and drunk. What a strange way to witness one's enemy. Rey danced around his room unknowingly, her movements becoming more ridiculous as the moments went by until at one point she appeared to be imitating a water-spout.

Apparently, the last Jedi was not a very smooth dancer.

A soft chuckle escaped Ren's throat. Across from him the girl went still, and whipped around. Her eyes fell on him. Her face was flushed and some of her hair had escaped its bun and stuck to the sweat on her forehead.

Rey looked confused for a moment, and then horrified, and then angry. The psychic link broke without warning, and then Ren was alone in his quarters.

He stood slowly, setting his book to the side. The man glared darkly at the spot where she had been dancing, before crossing the room to a small intercom by his door. A gloved thumb pressed the receiver.

"...bring me a whiskey."


	2. Breakfast 1

Breakfast I

The Last Jedi and the Supreme Leader have surprisingly similar schedules.

In the morning, they each wake with they sun (when there is a sun to be woken to). Neither make their beds. Ren, because he has servants to do this for him. Rey, because she has never once in her life cared enough to make a bed.

And also never really had one before.

Both stretch. Both nurse leftover wounds in the quiet serenity of the morning. Ren goes straight to training, but Rey enjoys a cup of coffee first.

They both wait to take their first meal until they are ravenous and feel they have earned it. Ren eats like an animal, with huge portions meant to fill his body with strength. Rey eats a smaller meal - partly out of necessity, but also because she is light and fast. But she does it with very little decorum.

The first time they connect during breakfast, Rey has a large bite of toast in her mouth. One moment she is alone in the galley of the Millennium Falcon, and the next Kylo Ren is sitting across from her with steak and eggs in front of him and a fork held nimbly in his fingers.

Rey jerked visibly, choking a bit on her toast as she swallows it a little too quickly. Ren is able to mask his surprise, as he felt the familiar chill which usually preempted her appearance. To him she sits across the cold metal table in a relatively empty dining hall. She takes a large sip of coffee, and when she's calmed herself enough she looks at his breakfast and a look of annoyance appears on her face.

"You have steak? For breakfast?"

Ren looked down at his plate and then back at the girl, unsurely. "Yes?" He did not understand the look of displeasure on her face.

Rey sighed, sat back, and propped a foot up onto the edge of the table. "Life must be pretty cushy as the 'Supreme Leader' of the First Order." She added finger-quotes for emphasis.

"I need it for my strength," he answered matter-of-factly. "You could have eaten like this too, if you had accepted your true potential."

The fact that Ren did not understand why these statements were ludicrous was frustrating to Rey. She looked at her sad little serving of oatmeal and toast, and her black coffee, and she said, "While the rest of the galaxy starves?"

Ren returned to eating, steak and egg yoke delicious on the end of his fork. "People starve regardless of who is in charge. Do you think the resistance would do any better for a poor farmer on some back-water planet?" And then suddenly he felt very annoyed by her self-righteous words. "Do you actually believe things would really change? For ninety-nine percent of the universe, life would be exactly the same if you were somehow to defeat me. There is only so much power in the world, and only so many people who can wield it. If I don't have it then you do, but they never will. Life isn't fair. That's the true balance." He took a bite and glared right into Rey's eyes.

Rey nibbled at her toast quietly until he disappeared, feeling in an uncomfortable place that she couldn't really disagree with him.


	3. Womanhood

Womanhood

"Oh!" Rey cried, gripping her stomach and curling in on her side. She was alone in her bunk, the others having knowingly left her alone for the evening. It was sticky warm in the room, and wind filtered in through a natural window across from the girl.

The rebels were squatting in some ancient, abandoned caves which has been shaped many years ago by an unknown people. Her cot was not much more than a metal stand with a sheet on it. She pulled at the sheet, clenching her eyes as another searing cramp radiated out from her center.

The blessing of womanhood.

Rey was no stranger to it, but when the monthly bloods came they always wrecked her body with intense pain and even nausea. She had long ago demanded her own space during this time, not wanting to others to see her tear-stained eyes or hear the painful moans which often fell from her lips. She let one of these moans escape her now, curling in even tighter and pressing balled fists firmly into the base of her stomach.

It helped, if only a little.

A familiar sensation shot down her spine. Rey looked up, horrified, as Kylo Ren appeared before her. He was standing, holding a small metal device which he immediately pocketed when he saw her.

The girl grimaced, biting back a groan as her uterus shuddered again.

"Are you injured?" Ren asked, an expression of surprise on his face. He advanced slightly, crouching near her fetal body.

"Go away!" Rey demanded, but her voice was weak and strained. She closed her eyes tightly and buried her face into her chest as best she could. With any luck the psychic link would break quickly and she could be left alone with her humiliation.

Ren examined the girl stoically. His dark hair fell into his eyes. From his perspective she was curled up, floating in the air, in the middle of a large hall aboard his ship. Some staff shuffled by, but he paid them no mind, his curiosity prompting him to lean in even closer.

He could almost smell the sand.

Rey huffed and rolled away from him. From behind he could see a small stain of blood marking her woolen trousers. He stared without understanding for a moment, until the girl shuddered and tightened and a pained sound fell from her.

"I see," said Ren. He stood mechanically and averted his eyes. These small moments which the force seemed determined to make them share rarely lasted long. He thumbed the holo-disk in his pocket, wishing eagerly to return to his work. He had no particular desire to witness a woman in a moment like this. Especially not this woman. Her ragged breathing was distracting and even upsetting to him.

"Are you gone yet?" Rey asked, glancing at him from over her shoulder. Her eyes were burning with their usual fever.

"Not yet," Ren sighed.

Another few minutes crept by. Rey gasped again, squeezing her eyes shut.

"I am surprised that you have not had it removed," Ren said plainly. He was walking along the corridor now, thoroughly uninterested, but the vision of her followed him as he moved. Rey rolled over to glare at him.

"What?"

"All of my female soldiers do. It's a nuisance."

Rey gaped at the man, her mouth opening and closing several times before she shifted up into a seated position. "I would never do that," she said finally. He stopped walking and looked at her.

"Why? You can't possibly want to have children. Imagine if I were truly there in this moment and you needed to defend yourself? What would you even do, all curled up pathetically like that." He scoffed, "Surely the pain is not that intense."

An indignant sound came from her. "And what would you know about it? If you were here I'd destroy you, blood or not." He did not respond and so she added, "And the pain is more than you could imagine."

"Oh? And how many blasters have you been shot by?" His tone was clearly mocking.

She scoffed. "Just like a man to dismiss something because he has never experienced it."

Ren shook his head with a bitter chuckle. "If I had one I'd rip it out myself, as a warrior."

"You do not want children?"

They looked at each other for a long, heavy moment. When these links occurred, as they had been doing with increasing frequency, they were typically quite short. The two rarely spoke, and especially did not speak like this. Finally, after a few minutes and because nothing else was apparently going to happen, he answered. "Of course not. I could not be an effective leader." He said this as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"...your mother was."

Ren rolled his eyes. "Why has the link not broken yet?" He did little to hide the frustration in his voice.

Rey shook her head. "I don't know..." and then she grimaced and gripped her stomach, doubling over. Ren watched her impassively.

"Do you want to have children?" He asked, suddenly curious. Rey's face was bunched up and a small amount of water wet her cheeks. Her breathing was uneven.

"I don't know... not... while the world is like this." She took a deep breath and straightened. "Perhaps some day."

In all honesty, Ren have never considered having children before. He rarely focused on any woman for any length of time. Of course he had his needs, but they were met quickly and quietly and never in a manner which brought to his mind thoughts of reproducing. As a Sith, the closest he expected to get to a child would be in a protégée. Now as he stared at this sweaty, huffing girl, he imagined what a life with a child would be like. The entire image flashed before his eyes in a second - a blur of blues and greens and peaceful feelings. Laughter.

He shuddered away from the thoughts, looking at the black and steel walls which surrounded him. No, a child would never be. Not for him, and probably not for this girl. After all, some day he would kill her. Some day soon.

"Ah..!" Rey gasped. Ren startled, and out of annoyance came close to her.

"Perhaps I can ease your suffering," he said, reaching with a gloved hand toward her body. Rey shifted away from him on instinct. "I cannot hurt you," he reminded her.

She remained hesitant, but did not move away. The pain on her face was evident. Ren slowly placed his open palm flat against her lower stomach, closing his eyes and breathing deeply as he opened himself to the force. He could almost feel the heat radiating from her body.

When his eyes opened she was gone, leaving him once again alone.

Rey stared at the place he had stood for a long time. The pain had eased significantly, and instead a warm feeling radiated from that place. Curiously, the girl reached down and pressed probing fingers against herself.

The bleeding had stopped.


	4. Holes

Holes

The people we meet leave holes in our lives when they go. With some people, the holes are small. They come and go before we ever really know them. But others leave giant holes.

Rey nurses these wounds sometimes. When she is alone she thinks about the parents she never had.

"They were nobody," Ren had told her. But they were not no one - their absence in her life left something raw and aching inside of her. A question about if things could have been different. Perhaps things would have been worse - but this is not what she thinks about in these rare moments of self-indulgence. Instead she feels the loneliness and the longing.

She thinks of Han Solo, and she wonders if he could have become a father to her. She thinks about her lost mentor. She thinks about what would happen if General Organa, or Fin or Poe were to go.

These moods never last long, because she begins to feel lucky that she is a part of their lives. She thinks there really aren't that many holes in the first place, and she feels full and satisfied and sure about her path.

Ren also has holes in his life, but the holes are very different. They offer nothing but pain. They are giant, screaming reminders that there is nothing but suffering and only hate to sustain it. When he thinks about his father he is filled with fire and self-loathing and shame. When he thinks about his mother he wonders if he will ever know contentment again.

Even Snoke left a hole. Without him Ren feels aimless - a loaded gun with no target. He feels fear because he knows now he is entirely alone.

But then he wasn't alone anymore. This connection with Rey was beginning to make her more than an obstacle to be overcome. To her he had spoken the only words he felt were his own in a very long time. What kind of hole would remain when she, too, was gone?


End file.
